Retirement at Sixty? Public Officers on Alert
Belize’s public officers could soon spend another five years on the job before qualifying for retirement. The government is exploring whether to raise the retirement age from fifty-five to sixty as part of a wider effort to reduce pension costs and account for longer life expectancy. No decision has been made, but the proposal is already drawing concern from the opposition. UDP Chair Sheena Pitts warns that delaying retirement or changing pension benefits could place greater financial pressure on public servants who depend on both their government pension and Social Security after leaving the workforce.
Sheena Pitts, Chair, United Democratic Party
“The effect of waiting for Social Security is that you will only have government pension within those five years, and that will also reduce your income or money stream for five years. Make I put it in money terms. If you retire at fifty-five, and you get five hundred dollars per month as pension, let’s just say Social Security gives you, or you’re also entitled to five hundred dollars from Social Security, which you only get when you are sixty. It starts to kick in. So if as they are toying with now, because they are saying in order to reduce the wage bill, they want to take up the retirement age, and then reduce the pension amount. So pension used to be two-thirds of your salary. So they are thinking about taking up the retirement age and reducing the amount that you will get on your salary. So, so if you were getting five hundred at fifty-five, you will now. And if they attribute whatever decrease in percentage they want, you will now get, let’s say, three hundred and fifty dollars at sixty. And then you will be forced to live on three hundred and fifty dollars between fifty-five and sixty until Social Security kicks in.”
Public officers should update their records early to avoid delays in receiving pension and gratuity benefits.
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